The medical history and physical examination are the most important cornerstones of clinical diagnosis, but there has been no single book devoted to a description of methods applicable to companion animals. This book is intended to fulfil the need. It describes the methods used in the veterinary schools of the University of Utrecht in the Netherlands and the University of Ghent in Belgium. The effectiveness of these methods is recognized by many visiting staff members and students from other veterinary schools in Europe and North America. Central to this book is the concept that the examination should be as efficient as possible. To achieve this purpose, a short initial examination is used to define the problems presented by the owner. The clinician is then guided in making choices, which focuses the attention on the essential problems and makes more of the examination time available for problem solving. The methods of examination, which are described system by system, are based on this selective approach. Many of the chapters close with a medical history form, which facilitates rapid orientation to the medical problem, and throughout the book photographs and original drawings illustrate both concepts and methods.

creation no falsification falsification Tl rejected creation etc. Figure 1-1 delivers such a result that the theory must be seen as an extension of Popper's rational proce discarded. In this way we come at the same time dure for theory elimination. to the border between science and nonscience: a Popper's naive falsifiability knows only one theory is scientific if it is falsifiable. It is thus way, the elimination of what is weak. The so not scientific to bring additional evidence to phisticated falsifiability, in contrast, knows only bear in vindication of the theory; the theory elimination in combination with the acceptance would thereby take on the character of an un of an alternative. According to sophisticated fal challengeable certainty of belief ('religion'). sifiability, a scientific theory T r is only aban Following Popper, others such as Kuhn, with doned if its place is taken by another theory T2 his paradigm theory, have considerably extended which has the following three characteristics: 1 the range of thought over what is scientific and T 2 has more empirical content than TI; the new what is not."